Bedford Square, Brighton

Location

Country: Other
City: looted or destroyed

Destroyed or looted in riots, Baghdad, Iraq, 1958

John Piper was born in Epsom, Surrey and worked in his father’s solicitors’ firm until 1926. He later studied art in Richmond and London. Meeting Braque in Paris inspired him to make abstract art and to exhibit with the Seven and Five Society (1934–35). In 1935 Piper collaborated with Myfanwy Evans (later, his wife) on the pioneering review, ‘Axis’. He abandoned abstract art for Neo-Romanticism and during the Second World War, as an Official War Artist, he recorded bomb-devastated buildings of England’s disappearing architectural heritage. A versatile artist, Piper made book illustrations, theatre designs, ceramics, stained-glass and textiles. He collaborated with Patrick Reyntiens on stained glass projects which included the baptistry window for what was then the new Coventry Cathedral, and the stained glass lantern for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Retrospectives of Piper's work were held at the Museum of Modern Art (Oxford, 1973) and the Tate (1983–84).

Places

Subjects

topography, square, townscape/cityscape, railing, lamp post, pavilion, house, chimney, balcony, bench

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), watercolour (as object name)

Artist

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

Title

Bedford Square, Brighton

Date

1938

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

height: 35.60 cm, width: 48.20 cm

Inscription

br: Bedford Square Brighton / John Piper

Provenance

Collection of ‘Mrs. Andrews’; from whom purchased by the Leicester Galleries, London; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in September 1955

GAC number

3285